Editorial: DeVore hitting the road out of California

2011-10-26 16:13:19

We're sorry to see Chuck DeVore leave Orange County – and California. He's moving to Texas and for the same reason as many other Californians: a better jobs climate.

Mr. DeVore has been a Californian since his family moved here when he was 13. He served in the California Assembly from 2004-10. In 2007, he retired from the California Army National Guard with the rank of lieutenant colonel and transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve. Last year, he lost a Republican U.S. Senate primary battle to Carly Fiorina; she, in turn, lost in the general election to Democrat Barbara Boxer. He was readying a 2012 run for Orange County supervisor, Third District, on a pension-reform platform when he made his abrupt announcement of departure.

We've had our disagreements with Mr. DeVore on a couple of issues, such as our opposition to the Iraq war, which he supported. But we usually agreed with him. In the Assembly, he was one of the taxpayers' best friends. He staunchly opposed all tax increases. Seeing the Great Recession coming in 2007, Mr. DeVore even proposed a tax cut to keep California competitive with other states. It didn't pass. Since then, California's unemployment rate has risen at times to 3 percentage points above the national average, and remains stuck at or near 12 percent.

Mr. DeVore told us that, to continue his supervisorial race, he would have to go deeply into debt at a time when the family he supports has expanded to include his wife's parents, ages 82 and 86. He said Texas has no state income tax, saving him $1,500 right there. And by moving to Austin, he can get a home twice as large as his home here, while paying a little more than half as much.

In Texas, Mr. DeVore will be senior visiting scholar for fiscal policy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, where he'll be co-writing a book, "The Texas Model," with the foundation's president and CEO, Brooke L. Rollins.

As for us, we're staying in California. There's no surfing in Austin. And Orange County's business climate still is better than California's overall. But the departure of Mr. DeVore – and so many others – is another warning that this state needs to start cultivating businesses and jobs, instead of chasing them away.